NEW TO DVD

Get things started: `Muppet Show' on DVD

Henson's critters draw wide appeal

August 12, 2005|By Joshua Klein, Special to the Tribune

Trying to drum up some money for his "Muppet Show," then still in its earliest stages, Jim Henson and crew created a rapid-fire and wonderfully subversive pitch reel to show potential investors. The short clip reaches its apex with this inspired bit of lunacy, delivered by an increasingly frenzied Muppet: "Small children will love the cute cuddly characters. Young people will love the fresh and innovative comedy. College kids and intellectual eggheads will love the underlying symbolism of everything. Freaky, long-haired, dirty, cynical hippies will love our freaky, long-haired, dirty, cynical Muppets. Because that is what show business is all about!"

Needless to say, while Jim Henson's Muppets always appealed to young viewers, beginning with their days as supporting players on "Sesame Street," Henson and his fellow puppeteers devised "The Muppet Show" with a much broader, more sophisticated audience in mind (supposedly the original, uncut pitch ended with Kermit the Frog turning to the camera, muttering "what the hell was that all about?"). And now that the complete first season of the show has been collected on DVD (Buena Vista, 1976, 604 minutes, NR, $39.99), all of the above categories can once again be satisfied.

"It is a kind of humor that was being done pretty much to please the guys who made it," says Lisa Henson, who, with her brother Brian, serves as CEO of the Jim Henson Company. "It wasn't, I don't believe, calculated--this will be for the kids, and this will be for the adults, and we'll get the perfect mix. It was more like everyone just producing something that was as funny as they could possibly make it, and it ended up being funny and appealing to both kids and adults. Clearly, it was not designed just for children."

Ironically, Henson thinks it was her father's success on "Sesame Street" that inspired him and his fellow puppeteers to try something different.

"The Muppets had just launched in the previous five years on `Sesame Street,' so they had been working for very young audiences for a few years, and previous to that, many years of adult entertainment on variety television shows," Henson says. "I think after having worked for a few years on just `Sesame Street,' really focused on that and making that show as good as it could possibly be, everybody involved with the Muppets really wanted to get back into more of the adult stuff."

Which explains the delirious humor, odd gags, anarchy and sublime silliness captured in Season One of "The Muppet Show."

"A lot of the sketches from the first season are things that had been done on different variety shows, in slightly different forms," Henson says. "So they were all classic bits, and in a way the show was its own variety show. The Muppets had been in their own way a variety act since the early '60s, and the variety show was still kind of alive at that time. . . . This was like giving the Muppets their own variety show."

That meant pitching the show to performers across the spectrum, A-listers on down, devising a diverse slate of guests not only simpatico with the series' defining quirks but also committed to a weeklong stay in England, where the show was filmed. Season One includes such familiar names as Candice Bergen and Vincent Price, but also Twiggy, dancer Juliet Prowse and Paul Williams.

"I think that's one of the reasons why the full episodes hadn't been released yet on DVD," admits Henson. "I think people had some questions about how the guest stars would wear. But I feel like the bits involving the guests are so bizarre that if you don't know who the guest is you can still appreciate the humor of it. If you don't know who the ballet dancer is or who the opera singer is, you're still going to understand that it's a joke about a ballet dancer or an opera singer."

Best of the week

"Kung Fu Hustle" (Columbia TriStar, 2005, 99 minutes, R, $28.95): The clever gags and ingenious choreography of "Kung Fu Hustle" justify the over-the-top computer effects. Imperceptible though the differences may be, the U.S. DVD version of Stephen Chow's martial arts show-stopper includes the American theatrical cut instead of the slightly more graphic Asian cut.

"Off the Map" (Columbia TriStar, 2003, 105 minutes, PG-13, $24.96): The Joan Allen resurgence continues apace with another fine performance. As was the case with "The Upside of Anger," a fellow actor (Campbell Scott) directed Allen in "Off the Map." Scott provides a commentary track with writer Joan Ackermann.

Dud of the week

"Alexander: Director's Cut" (Warner Bros., 2005,167 minutes, R, $29.95): Don't let the selling points plastered on the cover of this new version of Oliver Stone's recent flop fool you. Stone's cut may run shorter, but it's just as muddled as the theatrical version.